Though chemistry has of late years made great progress in the science of analysis, vegetable poisons are so soon eliminated from the body, as to leave hardly any trace for the chemist’s tests to re-act upon, and the mineral poisons may be regarded as almost the only class on which science can operate with invariable certainty. The first duty of any one called to act in a case of poison, is to administer an antidote, of which there are supposed to be two; one, which given immediately, will chemically destroy the virulence of the poison—as in the case of a person who has swallowed a powerful acid, the exhibition of chalk will destroy the potency of the acid, by forming a new and harmless compound—and antidotes or drugs in many instances of a problematical effect, which are supposed to have the power of neutralizing the effect produced on the system, by the agency of the poison, and restoring the disorganised body to a pure and pristine health. Of this class of drugs once implicitly believed in, science has found few if any to bear the test of a rigid experience. To leave theory, and come at once to the practical, the first care of any one, when an individual has voluntarily, or by accident taken a poison, or any known or suspected deleterious substance, is to procure its instant evacuation from the system by _vomiting_. In many cases, either the drug itself, or the over-dose of it, excites this remedial step, and if so, the attendant should encourage the action of the stomach by all the means immediately procurable; or if the vomiting has not set in, to excite it at once, either by warm water in frequent draughts, or should that not be present, by a draught of mustard and water, or a few spoonfuls of common salt dissolved in water; or should neither of these be in readiness, and while the water is heating, and medical aid or other means is being sought, give copious draughts of cold water, and by the feathery part of a quill, tickle the fauces, or with the handle of a spoon press down the root of the tongue; when the contents of the stomach must be ejected. This process may be repeated; and even without further means, the poison may in this way be ejected from the stomach. In cases where vegetable, or what are called narcotic, poisons have been taken, it is sometimes extremely difficult if not impossible, to produce vomiting, though attempted with proper emetics; in all such, in fact in all vegetable poisons, the stomach pump becomes imperative, and the most valuable of agents, as it not only fills the stomach with water, but immediately after relieves it of that, and whatever poisonous matters it may hold in suspension or solution. This process of filling the stomach with tepid water, and again expelling it, must be continued till all apprehension that more poison remains, is removed from the mind of the operator. In cases of poisoning by narcotic and vegetable substances, to